Beatles fans trash Forrester analyst

Flooded with angry comments after disparaging the “geezer skew” of digital downloads

Source: Apple Inc.

Forrester’s Mark Mulligan thought he was making a point about the state of the music business, not the quality of The Beatles’ music, when he posted a brief item Tuesday congratulating Steve Jobs for finally getting the Fab Four on Apple’s AAPL music store:

“The fact that securing the content of a band old enough to be most young music fans’ grandfathers (and some) is a sad reflection of the state of the digital music market,” he wrote.

“Yes, it will be a success. Yes, we’ll have numerous Beatle #1’s (probably including at Christmas). But that’s just further depressing evidence of the old geezer skew of digital music buyers.

“The digital music market (and the young music fans that record labels desperately need to get engaged) needs new music products, not yesteryear’s hits repackaged.”

Strong language, designed to provoke. “I was horrified when I came across this blog,” wrote Michael Burke, in a typical comment. “How can he whinge, moan and complain about the biggest music band ever being finally brought onto iTunes?”

Mulligan, for his part, was shocked, shocked that anybody could have missed his point.

“Wow,” he tweeted six hours later, “60+ comments on my blog post, most of which mistaking music industry analysis for music criticism.”

Flooded with angry comments after disparaging the “geezer skew” of digital downloads

Source: Apple Inc.

Forrester’s Mark Mulligan thought he was making a point about the state of the music business, not the quality of The Beatles’ music, when he posted a brief item Tuesday congratulating Steve Jobs for finally getting the Fab Four on Apple’s AAPL music store:

“The fact that securing the content of a band old enough to be most young music fans’ grandfathers (and some) is a sad reflection of the state of the digital music market,” he wrote.

“Yes, it will be a success. Yes, we’ll have numerous Beatle #1’s (probably including at Christmas). But that’s just further depressing evidence of the old geezer skew of digital music buyers.

“The digital music market (and the young music fans that record labels desperately need to get engaged) needs new music products, not yesteryear’s hits repackaged.”

Strong language, designed to provoke. “I was horrified when I came across this blog,” wrote Michael Burke, in a typical comment. “How can he whinge, moan and complain about the biggest music band ever being finally brought onto iTunes?”

Mulligan, for his part, was shocked, shocked that anybody could have missed his point.

“Wow,” he tweeted six hours later, “60+ comments on my blog post, most of which mistaking music industry analysis for music criticism.”